next game now we are 21/4, 13minutes in game .... this match maker such a fuckin joke i could aswell leave the server and my slardar would win 1v2 long lane thats how bad our enemies are
enemy has zeus and leshrac mid and they lost to our solo qop - D
guys gues what type of teammates i got after winning 10in a row :D literally players with 180 wins were better than the ones within 400-700wins range i am playing with right now but somehow they all have almost same winratio
in wisp game i was sure mm went full retard and matched me with people below 50wins but no they had 500 and 600wins at 51+% winrate
that day i got lined up against a stack, all their names were in chinese, though no chinese would ever play on europe servers, anywayz, that game was the 9th game on the second page in live matches, my team wasnt even a stack, no one knew the other in the team, thank god someone failed to load, and i got matched the next match against normal players (not a stack). and i was like 9th or 11th page, back to normal :P
@Mapzor
If you go to PlayDota.com and you say "support Warlock" they will eat you alive. Everyone there believes that WL should go mid and farm a fast Agha + Refresher to win every possible teamfight.
again got top notch retard on my team ofc surprise surprise he went mid right from start fuckin shit match maker that dude died around 7 times till 15 min mark to qop
Random insults from OP as usual. I don't know why you hate me from the beginning of this thread. My first reaction in this thread was:
"OP is a good player.
OP is right about that MM is bad.
I'm not sure if MM can be made much better because we do not know how it exactly works.
OP has serious attitude problems which attracts people who flame him.
OP is just raging, doing nothing constructive.
Leaving never ending qq-thread."
Then you said:
"^ Stating that mm is not bad, though we dont even know how it works.
A poor retard."
So you even didn't understand that I said MM is bad but you started calling me retard. You should keep your head cool.
Warlock doesnt need farm, just throw ur damn fatal bonds, idc about his golems, its his fatal bonds the op skill, the golems can be dealt with, WHY NEED A FAST SCEPTER + REFRESHER THEN ?!?!?!?!?!?!
if u remove fatal bonds, then he wont be picked in pubs anymore, or his winrate will drop to 48% at least
^^^ I agree but with reservations. While fatal bonds + any kind of team work is amazing...in pub games you often get no teamwork. I think the psychological impact of his ult is the biggest factor in his 60% pub win rate. People fear it and panic when the rock falls, they don't fight, they just freak out and feebly move around dieing.
Anyway I think WL would still get maybe 55% win without fatal bonds. Often I see WL fail to cast it and still teamwipe the enemy.
Some posts saying the matchmaking is NOT broken are so wrong. Seriously even the article posted by dotabuff was a bad joke. How exactly does the matchmaking sizes me up when I have 1000+ games with (of course) a 50-51% winning average with a BUNCH of retards who most of them say "I'm carry CM you buy wards and courrier" and stuff like that and have NO IDEA about the game, autoattacking creeps, fucking up farm , not supporting at all etc. Explain me that. Not all of us have the time to organise a team and go play team-based ranking games. Even when you are playing with just 2-3 friends matchmaking still FAILS to draft you it's either a very easy game cause of noobish enemies or a stomping loss from drafting you with a team of 5 80% of the time. The good old dota-league(R.I.P) matchmaking was by far better than this one that makes NO SENSE at all.
It`s funny how everyone assumes MM is bad, and not that THEY are bad, and MM just matches them up with same skill players.
Dunning–Kruger effect everywhere in this bitch.
When I pick rubick (which I don`t anymore) I generally go something along the lines of 1/16/10. Does that indicates that I'm retarded player? No, not really. Just indicates that I suck with that hero. Those players that pick enigma/pudge, might be just that- just bad at that hero.
Now, for the other question- if MM IS fair, and you just getting matched up with people of your level (approximately at least), how would you know its not? According to you, neither winrate or KDA is reliable indication of skill, so how would you know that players that you play with are worse than you?
When I play solo games, I do get players who arent playing very well. But do they autoatack? No. Do they do noob tier shitty things? Not really. Usually they are a) Being uneffiecent at their hero or b) picked a hero of different style that they usually play(I.e picking void while mainly playing gankers and ganking people). Does that make them bad players? Not really. They just new/suck with the hero (Like my rubick - http://dotabuff.com/players/37869211/matches?hero=rubick&game_mode=&match_type=real) So really, if MM is fair, how would you know? And if MM is unfair, how come there are plenty of people (like me for example) who, while do get players that play bad(Notice how I didn't say they are bad players), don't get outrageous noobs who autoatack and die to neutrals? Surely, if it was just luck, over the course of many games we would have same frustrating experience.
And no, I don't think you personally are bad. I'm fairly sure you are the type of player who farms efficiently and wins the game due to that and being careful not to die. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are players that play differently, and you can't say that they are bad. I for example, not that good at farming, or not dying, but I do tend to help team by setting up baits/engagements where, while I may die, favours our team in general. Does that type of play worse than yours? Thats debatable. Is there other styles of play? You bet.
^ How in the earth can I know that enigma that casts 2 ults in a game sucking 1 guy at a time in is worse than me when my enigma's ults are usually 4-5 guys and sometimes a won game as a result?
You completely ignored my argument. When I play rubick, I can't even steal spells properly, and when I do- I can't use them efficiently. Does that really means that I'm much worse than what matchmaking thinks I am? If you played a game with me when I'm rubick, can you definately say-Yeap, this guy so bad at rubick, he must be trash player?
Enigma is complicated character. I like to play supports, but usually don't trust myself enigma for that exact reason- I don't have experience/practice to cast black hole at the right moments. If someone picks meepo and suck, would you conclude that they are bad players based on just that 1 game? I can continue repeating the argument, but hopefully you will tend not to ignore points in the debate further,otherwise there is no point of the debate in the first place.
^ Well, you know, I can play like 80% of heroes. And I know basics about the others. If I suck as some hero, there is a very small chance that I will pick him.
I dont think that this enigma guy is a good player, nah, Im pretty sure he is a shitty newb. You know, by one game you can judge people if he is a good player playing 'not his' hero or a complete retard if you have any sense in dota.
Do you think I'm a horrible trash player?
I do have games like http://dotabuff.com/matches/149688846 does it indicate that I am bronze level scum? People DO have bad games, you cannot be always perfect. When I'm drunk/sleepy and decide to play dota, I MIGHT not have the attention required to operate at my 100% capacity. Hell, in many games I don't play my 100% for one reason or the other. So generally, if player is playing at 100% of his efficiency yes you can judge his approximate skill by 1 game. But this is real life, people have bad games/being drunk/just being upset over things. Yes, I do wish people would tryhard every game-but they don't. Some people just play game for the sake of playing a game and forgeting about their shitty/not shitty lives. I never said enigma guy is a genius, don't twist my words. I just said he might have wanted to try out new hero- which is normal, you can't blame people for that (Although I do agree it is better to be done in bot/least played matches first). So without having full stats, how can you tell he sucks? What if it was Dendi who just got dumped by a girlfriend and just can't concentrate on the game(Thats just an example, i'm not implying he was dendi). Shit happens, shitty games happen, unless you take many games into account, 1 game in real life doesn't give you enough information about the skill of a player, esp when he playes with unfamiliar hero (Read my argument about play styles again).
So a good player can't have trashy games? I consider myself pretty good(Or at least better than average players). I do have trashy games.
Pro players fail- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcNCid4SQ8M (Esp that enigma that never ulties, till everyone runs away and then it ulties. Is that player trash?)
I watched a game recently where pro team with 3 carries lost a game because they were stupid and dying 1 by 1, even though they played against 1 carry, and game went for long time(If you are interested ill try to find it.) Do all of those players/teams trash?
I think what happens here is that you fail to acknowledge that dota is an EXTREMELY complicated game, and there is a lot of factors to it. You might get ganked early/denied a lot of farm/experience, and then suck for the rest of the game because you can't really do much (i.e your regular play style of going in and rampaging might not work without usual amount of items that you have at that point). You can pick a hero like enigma, and not cast black hole often because you are saving for THAT moment (with 180 sec CD ulti its not a bad thing to do), only to realize that because you don't have any experience with positioning enigma properly you can't really get any of those moments. It the simple fact, that you might be best carry in the world, and not know how to position yourself while playing support, and feed because of that. No one mastered dota 100%, every player has his own weaknesses and strengths. Ever IG lose games, despite being very very good at this game.
Now lets look at original question again- if MM is fair, how would you know its not true? You say you can "feel" that player is trash, but 1)You can't really give arguments like "you feel" in serious debates 2) Dunning–Kruger effect might be applied to you- you might be bad, and feel like you have enough experience to judge other people skill, while you don't- thats the primary reason why "feel" cannot be a good argument in an argument.
And no, I don't deny that you get winning/loosing streaks, although now I stack with friends I get them much much less often . I don't know if its true, but I feel the more games I play were I actually try to do my best, the less amount of those streaks I get. (Check out my last games for the past 2 months, I rarely get more than 2-3 lose in a row). This point however have no argument in the debate we're having- we don't know how MM works. If its re-adjusts your skill level every 5 games it makes sense- once it readjusts you higher than your potential skill level is, you statistically going to lose more. Although all of this is pure speculation and has no reason to be here if we're actually discussing MM system without making hypothesis that we can't confirm.
And yeah, look at my games for the past few months. I did got 1-3 losing streaks, but more often than not I get 2 wins/2 loses or smthing along those lines.
^ Just give a definition of trash games of yourself. Do you go for 0-10 score as a carry or dont buy any chick/wards as support and say: fuck this, Im a carry venge, or go woods to farm playing pudge?
Because such things can be done only by trash players, imo, and ofc they all were by my side.
As I've said, there is a difference between you not being able to use a stolen spell properly (when I started playing rubick I failed with it too) and these guys.
"^ How in the earth can I know that enigma that casts 2 ults in a game sucking 1 guy at a time in is worse than me when my enigma's ults are usually 4-5 guys and sometimes a won game as a result?
1. Deal with the system:
1a: Accept the fact that there will be bad players in your team, play for fun
1b: Play only in stacks
1c: Try out Dota 1 clients
1d: Try out other Dota-like games
2. Change the system (figure out suggestions then propagate it)
2a: Ladder
2b: Visible ranking, public algorithm of ranking
2c: Public algorithm of MM system
2d: Leagues, Rooms
Well ordered suggestions! Since I have done almost all of these at some point I will compare them.
1a) most games this is what I do. It works out great as long as there are not intentional losers. I really have trouble enjoying games with intentional losers.
1b) I have so much more fun in the few games where I can get a 5 man stack. Win or lose these are the best games by far. The trouble is unless you have a massive list of high skilled friends you usually can't get 5 whenever you want to play.
1c) Dota 1 is now generally the province of the maphackers and troll players. Since you can't maphack dota 2 and really do get punished for bad behavior far far more than any Dota 1 clan or league ever did the maphackers and trolls have been concentrated in what remains of Dota 1. You will need to know everyone on both teams to avoid them.
1d) Rather than dota-like, I think play vs bots really goes in this spot. You can get in some good practice on whatever hero you want while you wait for your stack who is not available yet.
2a) Dotabro? Elobuff? if you can't wait for valve to make this public try them...more complication, wait a long time for matches, but you will get your score
2b) same as 2a) plus Valve will make ranking visible at some point, the algorithm probably never
2c) how different from 2b?
2d) you can do this in Dota 2 now, I've played lots of private games its quite easy to do, all the tournament games are run this way also
^ I agree almost with everything you wrote. Some remarks:
1c: I think in SEA region Dota 1 is still a good place to play.
1d: I play a lot of bot matches but it is certainly not a good choice for more skilled players like OP
2b: I think if the rating will be visible, some smart people will find out the algorithm. So I think Valve will either make it visible and public or not visible and not public.
2c: How are stacks are paired with solos? How does search range work? How are the teams balanced? ...
Будь ласка, увійдіть до системи для написання коментарів.
@lie to me agen fagt
Got it.
Waiting for your and others' one-sided-game-posts.
next game now we are 21/4, 13minutes in game .... this match maker such a fuckin joke i could aswell leave the server and my slardar would win 1v2 long lane thats how bad our enemies are
enemy has zeus and leshrac mid and they lost to our solo qop - D
end score 64/9 25minutes in
guys gues what type of teammates i got after winning 10in a row :D literally players with 180 wins were better than the ones within 400-700wins range i am playing with right now but somehow they all have almost same winratio
in wisp game i was sure mm went full retard and matched me with people below 50wins but no they had 500 and 600wins at 51+% winrate
Why dont u use any medicine to cure ur anal pain? It is so inconvinient to play dota with a such butthurt.
^ Svali, mydak.
3rd game in a row has leaver before 20min mark that solo experience
i nvr get a bad team in my main
http://dotabuff.com/matches/171693575
This pl is on almost 52% winrate with shitty 1-2 kda.
Playing as an average guy, as pl he doesnt have any sense what to do.
I dont think he can carry a game by himself in majority, but this guy wins far more than he loses.
Clap clap matchmaking.
^Post his profile link, i can't access it
You're against mango_banana and Takamina dayum~
http://dotabuff.com/matches/172028431
Supporting worthless retards carries, getting cour/wards and ganks and still braindeads cant do shit.
jesus christ, just get friends already or a life
that day i got lined up against a stack, all their names were in chinese, though no chinese would ever play on europe servers, anywayz, that game was the 9th game on the second page in live matches, my team wasnt even a stack, no one knew the other in the team, thank god someone failed to load, and i got matched the next match against normal players (not a stack). and i was like 9th or 11th page, back to normal :P
just got 1/15/1 sf mid thanks valve
The Terrible, I still dont get, do you really think that a friend is a guy that must play dota?
Get some brains, please.
Go to steam> see feature called FRIEND list>learn to read. thanks.
I think he meant like, a dota friend, no need to actually meet him, just a net friend
All my last 3 games - losing with imbecils.
This will never change.
For a while I keep getting in my team players that pick support heroes and forget to stop farming...
a farming warlock, or a farming kotl, n1 choice of carries
@MαρzøƦ Warlock needs farm man. I either go mid or safe farm with him or the hero gets useless.
@Mapzor
If you go to PlayDota.com and you say "support Warlock" they will eat you alive. Everyone there believes that WL should go mid and farm a fast Agha + Refresher to win every possible teamfight.
playdota is full of retarded theory crafters with very few good players eg juice and few others but i cant recall their names
+only section worth reading there is advanced mechanics
no offence guys but thats the way it is ;c
@Vuk There are people that get Radiance on DS just because of the Ion Shell there.
again got top notch retard on my team ofc surprise surprise he went mid right from start fuckin shit match maker that dude died around 7 times till 15 min mark to qop
I was talking about lion / omniknight / undying that prefer to freefarm instead of ganking / pushing / defending with the rest of the team.
Vuk, so you are that bad that you can never do that? :P
As I've expected.
@lie to me agen fagt
What?
Random insults from OP as usual. I don't know why you hate me from the beginning of this thread. My first reaction in this thread was:
"OP is a good player.
OP is right about that MM is bad.
I'm not sure if MM can be made much better because we do not know how it exactly works.
OP has serious attitude problems which attracts people who flame him.
OP is just raging, doing nothing constructive.
Leaving never ending qq-thread."
Then you said:
"^ Stating that mm is not bad, though we dont even know how it works.
A poor retard."
So you even didn't understand that I said MM is bad but you started calling me retard. You should keep your head cool.
Warlock doesnt need farm, just throw ur damn fatal bonds, idc about his golems, its his fatal bonds the op skill, the golems can be dealt with, WHY NEED A FAST SCEPTER + REFRESHER THEN ?!?!?!?!?!?!
if u remove fatal bonds, then he wont be picked in pubs anymore, or his winrate will drop to 48% at least
^^^ I agree but with reservations. While fatal bonds + any kind of team work is amazing...in pub games you often get no teamwork. I think the psychological impact of his ult is the biggest factor in his 60% pub win rate. People fear it and panic when the rock falls, they don't fight, they just freak out and feebly move around dieing.
Anyway I think WL would still get maybe 55% win without fatal bonds. Often I see WL fail to cast it and still teamwipe the enemy.
Some posts saying the matchmaking is NOT broken are so wrong. Seriously even the article posted by dotabuff was a bad joke. How exactly does the matchmaking sizes me up when I have 1000+ games with (of course) a 50-51% winning average with a BUNCH of retards who most of them say "I'm carry CM you buy wards and courrier" and stuff like that and have NO IDEA about the game, autoattacking creeps, fucking up farm , not supporting at all etc. Explain me that. Not all of us have the time to organise a team and go play team-based ranking games. Even when you are playing with just 2-3 friends matchmaking still FAILS to draft you it's either a very easy game cause of noobish enemies or a stomping loss from drafting you with a team of 5 80% of the time. The good old dota-league(R.I.P) matchmaking was by far better than this one that makes NO SENSE at all.
Getting woods pudge in team. In ap mode. Ofc 0 hooks and a complete trash.
Maybe I am that bad that game thinks if I get pudge I'll go wood farming. Dunno, cant see any logic.
GGWP.
It`s funny how everyone assumes MM is bad, and not that THEY are bad, and MM just matches them up with same skill players.
Dunning–Kruger effect everywhere in this bitch.
^ You are one retarded guy. Mm pairs us with 1 ult in 30 min enigma, woods pudge. There is a difference between us and complete retards we play with.
So you think we are that bad? :P
When I pick rubick (which I don`t anymore) I generally go something along the lines of 1/16/10. Does that indicates that I'm retarded player? No, not really. Just indicates that I suck with that hero. Those players that pick enigma/pudge, might be just that- just bad at that hero.
Now, for the other question- if MM IS fair, and you just getting matched up with people of your level (approximately at least), how would you know its not? According to you, neither winrate or KDA is reliable indication of skill, so how would you know that players that you play with are worse than you?
When I play solo games, I do get players who arent playing very well. But do they autoatack? No. Do they do noob tier shitty things? Not really. Usually they are a) Being uneffiecent at their hero or b) picked a hero of different style that they usually play(I.e picking void while mainly playing gankers and ganking people). Does that make them bad players? Not really. They just new/suck with the hero (Like my rubick - http://dotabuff.com/players/37869211/matches?hero=rubick&game_mode=&match_type=real)
So really, if MM is fair, how would you know? And if MM is unfair, how come there are plenty of people (like me for example) who, while do get players that play bad(Notice how I didn't say they are bad players), don't get outrageous noobs who autoatack and die to neutrals? Surely, if it was just luck, over the course of many games we would have same frustrating experience.
And no, I don't think you personally are bad. I'm fairly sure you are the type of player who farms efficiently and wins the game due to that and being careful not to die. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are players that play differently, and you can't say that they are bad. I for example, not that good at farming, or not dying, but I do tend to help team by setting up baits/engagements where, while I may die, favours our team in general. Does that type of play worse than yours? Thats debatable. Is there other styles of play? You bet.
^ How in the earth can I know that enigma that casts 2 ults in a game sucking 1 guy at a time in is worse than me when my enigma's ults are usually 4-5 guys and sometimes a won game as a result?
HOW CAN I KNOW THAT FFS?
Lol.
You completely ignored my argument. When I play rubick, I can't even steal spells properly, and when I do- I can't use them efficiently. Does that really means that I'm much worse than what matchmaking thinks I am? If you played a game with me when I'm rubick, can you definately say-Yeap, this guy so bad at rubick, he must be trash player?
Enigma is complicated character. I like to play supports, but usually don't trust myself enigma for that exact reason- I don't have experience/practice to cast black hole at the right moments. If someone picks meepo and suck, would you conclude that they are bad players based on just that 1 game? I can continue repeating the argument, but hopefully you will tend not to ignore points in the debate further,otherwise there is no point of the debate in the first place.
^ Well, you know, I can play like 80% of heroes. And I know basics about the others. If I suck as some hero, there is a very small chance that I will pick him.
I dont think that this enigma guy is a good player, nah, Im pretty sure he is a shitty newb. You know, by one game you can judge people if he is a good player playing 'not his' hero or a complete retard if you have any sense in dota.
Do you think I'm a horrible trash player?
I do have games like http://dotabuff.com/matches/149688846 does it indicate that I am bronze level scum? People DO have bad games, you cannot be always perfect. When I'm drunk/sleepy and decide to play dota, I MIGHT not have the attention required to operate at my 100% capacity. Hell, in many games I don't play my 100% for one reason or the other. So generally, if player is playing at 100% of his efficiency yes you can judge his approximate skill by 1 game. But this is real life, people have bad games/being drunk/just being upset over things. Yes, I do wish people would tryhard every game-but they don't. Some people just play game for the sake of playing a game and forgeting about their shitty/not shitty lives. I never said enigma guy is a genius, don't twist my words. I just said he might have wanted to try out new hero- which is normal, you can't blame people for that (Although I do agree it is better to be done in bot/least played matches first). So without having full stats, how can you tell he sucks? What if it was Dendi who just got dumped by a girlfriend and just can't concentrate on the game(Thats just an example, i'm not implying he was dendi). Shit happens, shitty games happen, unless you take many games into account, 1 game in real life doesn't give you enough information about the skill of a player, esp when he playes with unfamiliar hero (Read my argument about play styles again).
^ I just cant agree, I do feel when a player is a good one and fails and when he is trash.
And btw, you cant argue with the fact that first you get 5 ez wins and then 5 ez stomps.
So a good player can't have trashy games? I consider myself pretty good(Or at least better than average players). I do have trashy games.
Pro players fail- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcNCid4SQ8M (Esp that enigma that never ulties, till everyone runs away and then it ulties. Is that player trash?)
I watched a game recently where pro team with 3 carries lost a game because they were stupid and dying 1 by 1, even though they played against 1 carry, and game went for long time(If you are interested ill try to find it.) Do all of those players/teams trash?
I think what happens here is that you fail to acknowledge that dota is an EXTREMELY complicated game, and there is a lot of factors to it. You might get ganked early/denied a lot of farm/experience, and then suck for the rest of the game because you can't really do much (i.e your regular play style of going in and rampaging might not work without usual amount of items that you have at that point). You can pick a hero like enigma, and not cast black hole often because you are saving for THAT moment (with 180 sec CD ulti its not a bad thing to do), only to realize that because you don't have any experience with positioning enigma properly you can't really get any of those moments. It the simple fact, that you might be best carry in the world, and not know how to position yourself while playing support, and feed because of that. No one mastered dota 100%, every player has his own weaknesses and strengths. Ever IG lose games, despite being very very good at this game.
Now lets look at original question again- if MM is fair, how would you know its not true? You say you can "feel" that player is trash, but 1)You can't really give arguments like "you feel" in serious debates 2) Dunning–Kruger effect might be applied to you- you might be bad, and feel like you have enough experience to judge other people skill, while you don't- thats the primary reason why "feel" cannot be a good argument in an argument.
And no, I don't deny that you get winning/loosing streaks, although now I stack with friends I get them much much less often . I don't know if its true, but I feel the more games I play were I actually try to do my best, the less amount of those streaks I get. (Check out my last games for the past 2 months, I rarely get more than 2-3 lose in a row). This point however have no argument in the debate we're having- we don't know how MM works. If its re-adjusts your skill level every 5 games it makes sense- once it readjusts you higher than your potential skill level is, you statistically going to lose more. Although all of this is pure speculation and has no reason to be here if we're actually discussing MM system without making hypothesis that we can't confirm.
And yeah, look at my games for the past few months. I did got 1-3 losing streaks, but more often than not I get 2 wins/2 loses or smthing along those lines.
^ Just give a definition of trash games of yourself. Do you go for 0-10 score as a carry or dont buy any chick/wards as support and say: fuck this, Im a carry venge, or go woods to farm playing pudge?
Because such things can be done only by trash players, imo, and ofc they all were by my side.
As I've said, there is a difference between you not being able to use a stolen spell properly (when I started playing rubick I failed with it too) and these guys.
"^ How in the earth can I know that enigma that casts 2 ults in a game sucking 1 guy at a time in is worse than me when my enigma's ults are usually 4-5 guys and sometimes a won game as a result?
HOW CAN I KNOW THAT FFS?
Lol."
u said it,
HOW CAN MM KNOW THAT FFS?
http://dotabuff.com/matches/174817455
Stack and pull like a bitch
ward like a bitch
CK essentially gets free farm as I heal up any harass he takes.
What does he do with the money? He builds a fucking HotD and Battlefury, and then starts to blame the team.
did Vaikiss quit dota due to superior mm? ;d
Some suggestions:
1. Deal with the system:
1a: Accept the fact that there will be bad players in your team, play for fun
1b: Play only in stacks
1c: Try out Dota 1 clients
1d: Try out other Dota-like games
2. Change the system (figure out suggestions then propagate it)
2a: Ladder
2b: Visible ranking, public algorithm of ranking
2c: Public algorithm of MM system
2d: Leagues, Rooms
@Casual
ofc, with 23 matches you play with newbs
Anyways waiting for keita-league if only Valve retards wont kill it like they killed dbr.
Well ordered suggestions! Since I have done almost all of these at some point I will compare them.
1a) most games this is what I do. It works out great as long as there are not intentional losers. I really have trouble enjoying games with intentional losers.
1b) I have so much more fun in the few games where I can get a 5 man stack. Win or lose these are the best games by far. The trouble is unless you have a massive list of high skilled friends you usually can't get 5 whenever you want to play.
1c) Dota 1 is now generally the province of the maphackers and troll players. Since you can't maphack dota 2 and really do get punished for bad behavior far far more than any Dota 1 clan or league ever did the maphackers and trolls have been concentrated in what remains of Dota 1. You will need to know everyone on both teams to avoid them.
1d) Rather than dota-like, I think play vs bots really goes in this spot. You can get in some good practice on whatever hero you want while you wait for your stack who is not available yet.
2a) Dotabro? Elobuff? if you can't wait for valve to make this public try them...more complication, wait a long time for matches, but you will get your score
2b) same as 2a) plus Valve will make ranking visible at some point, the algorithm probably never
2c) how different from 2b?
2d) you can do this in Dota 2 now, I've played lots of private games its quite easy to do, all the tournament games are run this way also
^ I agree almost with everything you wrote. Some remarks:
1c: I think in SEA region Dota 1 is still a good place to play.
1d: I play a lot of bot matches but it is certainly not a good choice for more skilled players like OP
2b: I think if the rating will be visible, some smart people will find out the algorithm. So I think Valve will either make it visible and public or not visible and not public.
2c: How are stacks are paired with solos? How does search range work? How are the teams balanced? ...